Scillies - 20th to 26th August
Another trip out there – hopefully not the last. The big stumbling block, as ever, is cost. It’s something you hear again and again from the small birding crowd that gathers at the tail end of the summer pelagic season. A £200 return on the Scillonian, £300-plus for a hop from Land’s End, and then upwards of £120 a night for accommodation – all before you’ve even got yourself to the far south-west. What’s long been a yearly pilgrimage is starting to feel more like a wallet-buster.
And yet… the lure of the magic isles is hard to resist. Maybe cheaper options will open up, maybe not, but the draw of that archipelago hasn’t faded one bit.
August visits have a different rhythm – much calmer than October’s full-on dawn-to-dusk madness that leaves you needing a holiday to recover. This one was centred on two pelagics, booked well in advance (the previous year’s gripping seabird sightings were still fresh in mind).
The Scillonian crossing was quiet – a few short-beaked common dolphin putting on a show, a single storm petrel and around 150 manx shearwater. Pleasant enough, but nothing to write home about.
The pelagics themselves were the real highlight, though. Land birds were thin on the ground, but even so there were a few decent migrants and one scarce visitor to keep things interesting.
Moorhen
Black-headed gull
Mediterranean gull
Herring gull
Lesser black-backed gull
Great black-backed gull
Sabine's gull - adult on pelagic
Manx shearwater
Great shearwater - Pelagic
European storm petrel
Wilson's storm petrel - a total of five on pelagic
Common sandpiper - Old Town Bay
Green sandpiper - Flying over Pilots Retreat
Oystercatcher - Porthcressa
Ringed plover - over the Garrison and Porthloo
Turnstone - Old Town Bay and Bishops Rock Lighthouse
Whimbrel - Past the Garrison
Collared dove
Woodpigeon
Feral pigeon
Goldcrest
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Linnet
House sparrow
Dunnock
Blue tit
Great tit
Starling
Blackbird
Song thrush
Robin
Carrion crow
Swallow
House martin
Swift
Kingfisher
Meadow pipit
Pied wagtail - Airport
Whinchat - two at the Airport
Western Bonelli's warbler - seen briefly on the Garrison
Common redstart - Garrison
Willow warbler - Garrison
Sedge warbler - Garrison
Reed warbler - Lower Moors
Chiffchaff
Blackcap
Cetti's warbler - Standing Stones field and Porth Hellick
Wheatear - Giants Castle, Airport and Penninis Head
Reed bunting - Lower Moors
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